Here's what you need to know about India's sports sponsorship market

While cricket is a religion in this country, over the last couple of years many other sports have gained their glamor quotient as well. This has led to the increase interest of brands associating with the number of sports events that has mushroomed in the recent past.

ESP Properties – SportzPower’s latest report, Sporting Nation in the Making – IV, points out some interesting stats and facts that could surprise you. Here’s presenting some key highlights from the research:

A positive number growth

According to the report, sports sponsorship in India saw a 19.33% growth in 2016 to Rs. 6400 crore as opposed to the preceding year and accounted for 11.5% of the total Indian AdEx (advertising expenditure numbers from GroupM This Year, Next Year 2016 report). Interestingly, since the last two consecutive years, while cricket took the major chunk of sports sponsorships, it witnessed a 3% downsize in its overall contribution. On the other hand, Kabaddi stole the show, and raked in almost triple the sponsorship than 2015 at Rs. 122 crore in 2016.

Kabaddi on the bright spot

As far as on-ground sponsorship is considered, the medium grew from Rs. 1030.5 crore to Rs. 1165.2 crore - a steady 13% growth in 2016. Kabaddi, in particular, showed a momentous 154% increase in on-ground sponsorship. This was mainly observed because of Kabbadi World Cup and an additional season of Pro Kabbadi League. Cricket added Rs. 33.2 crore over its numbers in the previous year, which will not surprise many.

“Let’s football?” Maybe not.

The overall team sponsorship grew by 25.33%. Cricket as a sport sprung forward on team sponsorship as compared to the rest of the pack with 51% more matches played in 2016 as opposed to 2015. 22 new brands tested IPL waters in team sponsorship causing it to tumult forward by 9.5% in 2016. Football witnessed a loss from Rs. 99 crore in 2015 to Rs. 98.2 crore in 2016. For instance, sponsors went down marginally for Indian Super League (ISL) as well with numbers dropping to Rs. 37.2 crore as against Rs. 38 crore in the year ago period.

Endorsements in sports had a growth of 14.4%. Cricket as a sport got 72 brands on board whereas non-cricket athletes (together) secured 82 brand endorsements. Post Rio Olympic, PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik contributed to non-cricket endorsements' growth by 83.5% in 2016, from Rs. 42 crore to Rs. 77.1 crore. Overall, Virat Kohli ruled the endorsement chart and had the biggest part to play in cricket endorsements rising from Rs. 264.4 crore to Rs. 279.3 crore in 2016.

Big monies spent on media

Media spends being the biggest contributor grew handsomely by 24.63% from Rs. 2816.9 crore in 2015 to Rs. 3510.8 crore in 2016. The on-air spends in sport went up 34.74%, from Rs. 1756.9 crore to Rs. 2367.2 crore. For the first time, there were separate SD and HD sales for IPL in 2016, and women (41% including rural) and kids dominated the viewership pie for the league. It can also be noted that, multiple events of international stature such as ICC World Twenty20, the Kabaddi World Cup, and the Junior Hockey World Cup enabled broadcasters to pull in higher ad sale revenues.

While PV Sindhu is the belle of the ball when it comes to social conversations and search volumes for obvious reasons; Sania Mirza is the reigning queen of Twitter and Facebook. And, Virat Kohli, takes the lead (overall) here as well. IPL dominated 79% of social conversations and 84% of searches. In terms of numbers, IPTL audience is the most digitally active sports viewer and despite popularity, PKL has the least traction online.

The future looks promising

It is observed that data analytics is influencing franchise owners, selectors and coaches to draw the best team combinations and to measure player’s on-field and of field value in a quantitative. And, this is expected to grow bigger in the year ahead.

Virtual Reality may change the way fans experience sport making it more immersive even from a remote location. With new league debuts like, table tennis, 2017 will spawn even more excitement, thinks ESP Properties and SportzPower. The ‘live’ funda will remain central in the broadcast format despite evolving to newer, multiple platforms.